About Us

Karen Dawson (ADip Mus) is a qualified piano teacher who studied through the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and is registered through the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) and has been teaching for nearly thirty years.

In 2009 Karen recognised the ongoing frustration of her students in grasping the complexities of reading music, and developed a now-tried-and-true method known as “The Dawson Method of Reading Music”. As her search for a comprehensive game-based theory program failed, she decided to write her own based on many years of experience with students of all ages. Thus, “Nifty Notes – The Dawson Method of Reading Music” was born.

Initially a card-based system, Karen enlisted the help of a team of talented software developers who turned technology on its end with the specifications they were given. Back then, they successfully rewrote the information technology books to develop a learning tool like no other. Now with the incredible talents of the Computer Science Faculty of UNSW, Karen has led three groups to further develop Nifty Notes 2.0 into a state-of-the-art, fully comprehensive music notation and theory tool that will exceed the expectations of today’s music students.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS NIFTY NOTES 1.0

• Creator & Author:
• Karen Dawson, Director, The Music Treehouse
• Software Developer:
• Regan Campbell, Managing Director, Symbill
• Web Designer:
• Aaron Dixon, Symbill
• Project Manager:
• Jan Vannings, Symbill
• Graphic Designer:
• Giles Evans
• Animator:
• Ben Joffe